What happens on the boat!

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We had a wonderful start of the journey. Father Aldrin gave the blessing of the fleet and indeed we were truly blessed with the winds. It was a south east wind,aided by the Gulf Stream we raced along hitting 11 knots. That was even before we took the fenders in. Bad on me. I missed pulling on the fenders on the port side and didn’t realize until two days into the trip. To my non sailors it is really bad to leave your fenders out. I was mortified when I remembered that the Elnitsky’s had rendered the honors to us by the bridge. (Not many can say an admiral of the US Navy rendered honors )

When we were fueling a crazy guy was totally out of control on his small motor boat snd the three guys with him were laughing so much as he just managed to avoid the first collision into us. Then he came around and again was heading towards us. One of the guys reached out to protect our boat and promptly fell in. We could only watch in horror as he laughingly drifted away on the current !

It’s difficult to show in videos and pictures just the true beauty of the sea and stars and the deep purple of the Gulf Stream and feeling of being pushed along like you’re on a magic carpet.

Pat made the evening dinners and they were delicious but when he sent his brother the picture to boast, Mike quickly replied that he was sparse on the meatballs.

We made such good time that we had to slow down a bit to avoid arriving too early in the morning. The last day was a rainy motoring day but I don’t think it dampened spirits too much.

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I’m happy to report that the only sighting of a tow boat was this one as we reached Beaufort NC. There were no engine problems or breakages. Well, apart from some air getting into the water pump but there was enough to wash dishes and we’re not really a crew who cares too much about personal hygiene